Former Attorney General William Barr said the Justice Department appeared to be actively investigating the roles of former President Donald Trump and those close to him in the Jan. 6 attacks.
Barr, who served as attorney general from February 2019 to December 2020, was involved in the Justice Department’s investigation into the deadly Capitol riot in an interview with CBS News’ Katherine Herridge on Friday.
Prosecutors appear to be taking a “hard look” at Trump and those around him in connection with the Jan. 6 attacks, based on recent federal grand jury subpoenas of senior Trump administration officials, Barr said.
“It was definitely a major event. It changed my perspective on what was going on,” Barr said. “It shows to me that they are taking a hard look at the high-level groups, including the president and the people around him who are involved in this.”
He also predicted to Herridge that prosecutors will “try to rule on executive privilege issues” after former White House counsel Pat Cipollone was reportedly subpoenaed by the Justice Department last week.
He described reports of the Cipollone subpoena as “most important.”
“As an adviser to the Office of the President, he has the strongest executive privilege,” Barr said. “For them, that’s the biggest mountain, and the fact that they’re taking it first, to me, shows that they want to A definite solution – not just on Cipollone – but you know, it affects [former White House chief of staff Mark] So did Meadows and a few others. “
former attorney general, who helped sow unfounded doubts about legality In the 2020 presidential election results, the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 incident had previously been told that Trump’s election fraud allegations were “nonsense” and “out of touch with reality.”
In remarks to Herridge last week, Barr did not say there would be a way to prove Trump’s involvement in a crime “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
“After the last set of hearings, I said personally, if that’s the truth, as attorney general, I still don’t think it’s enough to justify a crime committed by the president beyond any doubt,” Barr said.
you can watch Barr interviewed by CBS News the following.
